Baltimore Recap and a Lotta Links

Marc Nathan puts on a darn fine show.

The Baltimore Comic-Con is a pretty special thing. Is creator friendly, family friendly, and comics friendly in a way so many shows aren't anymore. I set up there, selling a little thing you may have heard of called Love and Capes. I did pretty well, and in a pretty cool way. It's hard to tell exactly, because so much of conventioning and selling are fluid concepts, but it seems like more people who attended the Baltimore show actually read the book, and wanted more.

With most shows I do, it feels like I'm always at ground zero, trying to sell the book to a new audience. "Have you heard of Love and Capes? No? Well, let me tell you about it." In Baltimore, people came up saying "I got issue one and need the rest!" Now, that could be because the book has been around for a year-and-a-half and I did the Free Comic Book Day issue, both of which make the series a little more noticable. Whatever the reason, I'm just glad it happened. I think I sell better at Baltimore than I do at any other show, on a daily average.

Plus, it's just so pleasant. There are a lot of creators I only see at Baltimore, and I actually get to talk to them. I was set up across from Kyle Baker, and chatted with him quite a bit. I got to hang out with Steve Conley, writer and artist of one of my favorite books, Astounding Space Thrills, and is one of the current artists on IDW's Star Trek book. I spent some time with John Gallagher and Rich Faber of Buzzboy, which is always nice. I got to have dinner with Mike Manley, Echo, Scott Cohn and Jamar Nicholas, among others. And I got to meet some new people, like Jann Jones and Art Baltazar.

I even got to do a panel, which outside of Mid-Ohio-Con, I don't do too much. I helped out at the Kids Love Comics panel, where I taught some kids about lettering. Yeah, I was surprised they picked my station, too.

Baltimore itself is a great location for the show. There aren't many shows that have that great mix of a good show and a lot to do in convenient walking distance. San Diego is just so frellin' huge, that getting to the Gaslamp District, which is just across the street, takes an act of God and a reservation for dinner made yesterday. Chicago plants its show out in the relative middle of nowhere, with two restaurants and a McDonalds to choose from. But Baltimore, like my much-beloved Mid-Ohio-Con, manages to find a location where there's a lot to do in proximity to the convention.

Paul Storrie and I had a nice drive to and from Charm City. No accidents or traffic tie-ups or anything like that, and lots of conversation. Paul did pretty well at the show, too.

The only down beat at all was the absence of Mike Wieringo. Unfortunately, I didn't make it to the tribute panel. Among other things, it was two hours at the end of Saturday. Ringo and his career deserve those two hours, heck, deserve more, but it was a long time to be away from the table for a lot of people. And I didn't manage to find the pros' wake that night either. Baltimore's only a two day show, with a lot of things set up before the show started and before Ringo's untimely passing, so finding a way to give him his due and still do right by the show is a balancing act. But there was a lot of money raised for the ASPCA in his name, and he was definitely missed.

The show's a couple weeks later next year, so I have to wait a little bit before I can make my hotel reservations again. But I'll be doing so as soon as I can.

Next show for me is WizardWorld Texas, and then Mid-Ohio-Con will close out my 2007 Conventions.

Trip Sixes

I'm just about to pick up stakes and head out to the Big Baltimore Comicon. Well, it's not actually called "the Big" but it is bigger than last year, so I guess it's accurate. I'll get to see some friends, have some food, drink some drink, and get some new Toon Tumblers. What a weekend.

Anyway, before Paul Storrie and I get in the Supercar-D for six hours of driving, chatting, podcasts and the Flash Gordon soundtrack, I finished up page six of Love and Capes. For those of you mathies in the audience, that means I'm 25% done. And, since it's book six and page size, I decided show off panel six. Yup, 666.

Make of that what you will.

La La La

I know I haven't updated in a couple days, so I thought I'd just tell you I may be having the best post-Comic-Con LA trip ever. Wish I could talk about it.

Who Needs the Kwik-E-Mart? I Do!

Whoa, did you read some of the stuff I read? Man, did I sound depressed.

Comic-Con does beat you up, that much is sure. But it’s still a pretty good show and a pretty good place to be. And, stuff that I may have wrote that sounded dark sounded better if you heard me say it. Then again, if you heard me say it, you were at Comic-Con and probably didn’t need to read a blog about it.

In that way, Comic-Con has changed for me. I used to go to a show full of hope and optimism, and then leave wishing I’d become a plumber. Now, the opposite is true: it starts out rough and by the end of it, there are a lot of possibilities.

What possibilities? Well, possibilities. More than that, I cannot say. Just keep your fingers crossed and pray to whatever God your worship for some things to break my way.

After the show, Charlotte Fullerton, Dwayne McDuffie, Matt Wayne, his wife, and I drove back to LA, but not before stopping at the annual halfway point, the animation writers’ party. It’s pretty informal, and a lot of fun. What’s weird for me these days is ‘m starting to know everyone. I used to go to these parties and meet new and exciting people, and people whose work I loved from afar. Now, I go up to these same people and they know who I am. Or at the very least, could pick me out of a lineup, which is why I didn’t steal that Justice League Unlimited script I saw lying around.

Now, as I write this, I’m in front of the pool at our hotel, on a clear, cool LA night, writing my blog. It’s become kind of a tradition to write these blogs poolside. It’s nice to wind down at night and put your thoughts into words.

My first day in LA was an easy one. Bob and Roger and I grabbed breakfast, and then I retired to the room to do a cover for the Ft. Worth Weekly. We had some drinks, grabbed dinner, and then…

…oh, yeah, my timing power.

It’s become a running joke that I have a “timing power.” The ability to be in the right place at the right time to skip a line or see something I wouldn’t otherwise see. It’s how one of my first New York trips involved more stuff than one person should be able to do in one day. But, with the power, I never saw a line, except as I was leaving the building. It’s how I lucked into seeing Harry Potter stuff that just happened to be on display at the Warner Brothers studio.

Today, Bob, Rog and I found ourselves looking for something to do, and I said “Let’s go to the Kwik-E-Mart!” Seven-Eleven has been running a promotion where select stores have become the fictional inconvenience store from The Simpsons. There’s one in LA, so we went there.

They were out of pink frosted doughnuts, and had no more Radioactive Man comics. So why was it good timing? Because as we left, squishees in hand, the security guard working the line (and yes there was a line at the Seven-Eleven, but it was a short one) said “This is the last day. In five hours, they all turn back into Seven-Elevens.

We’ve got four more days left in LA. But we managed to go on the one day, the only day we had, although we didn’t know it, to see the Kwik-E-Mart.

It wouldn’t have been the end of the world if we hadn’t made it, but I gotta say, I would have been a little disappointed if we hadn’t.

Okay, that’s it for now. Hopefully I’ll have some more stories to share before this trip ends.

Saturday Night Fever

Comic-Con is a squirrely beast.

Today was projected to be the biggest day of the show. The ticket sales for today sold out weeks ago. And, following the brilliant clear logic of Comic-Con, it was the slowest day so far.

There are lots of reasons why this could be. Maybe Comic-Con panicked and clamped down on Saturday, and as such there were actually less tickets sold. Or maybe since today was Big Media Day with the superstars, everyone camped upstairs in the panel rooms. Either way, the traffic at the show seemed to be down.

The panel things points out what I miss most about Comic-Con. Back in the Day, a scant ten years ago or so, I was the scout for my friends back in Ohio. I came to Con, saw the couple of Super Big Media Events and then came home and relayed everything to my friends around the campfire. Much the same way Threepio recapped the first two and a half Star Wars movies to the Ewoks.

Now, ten minutes after a panel ends, the interweb is afire with the news. A lot of the stories hit the web with video and pictures. Heck, with crowds the way they are, it’s actually easier to read it on the ‘net rather than actually attend the panel.

Still, I solid solidly and had a lot of people come over and rave about the book. One person in particular raved about the dialogue, and I enjoyed that, since I work so hard on it. I talked with a couple more companies. And I ran into Jenni Villarreal and some of the Hands-in-the-Air podcast group. So the show portion wasn’t too bad.

The after-show was pretty good, though, even if it ended earlier than any Comic-Con Saturday Night in recent memory. I went to the Animation Writer’s Caucus, which is always a treat. There are a fair number of writers who have come to know me, and one of these days that will pay off nicely.

I have to shout out to Geoffrey Thorne who, at a Comic-Con a couple years back, got me to start writing Star Trek short stories again. And now I have a co-writers credit on a Star Trek story, Hmmmm… connection maybe?

So, things continue to trend upward. Don’t expect an update tomorrow, though. I’ll be leaving the show at close and heading to an LA writers’ party and then to my new temporary base of operations, our swanky Sunset Boulevard hotel. Chances are it’ll be a late ‘un, and I actually have to do a cover for a paper tomorrow, so I can’t imagine I’ll log any computer time until sometime late on Monday.

The Light at the Middle of the Tunnel

My last two posts have been kind of depressing, I know. I’m sure you’re wondering, as I often am, why I keep doing this koo-koo-crazy-comic thing.

It’s because of days like today.

The show was nowhere near as bad. I sat behind my booth most of the day, scooting out only to buy a Blue Sun hoodie and the coolest of the 300 movie posters. But when I was behind the booth, I sold fairly well.

What was especially good was having people who’d bought issue one last year come up and buy issues two through five. Or having people compliment you on Long Distance or Raider and ask when I’m going to do more. Today was the day where I got the feedback that convinced me I’m not completely crazy, and instead just the legally-required amount of crazy, to do this job.

The night got better as I had a screenwriter whose work I’ve enjoyed say, upon seeing my card, “Oh, hey, you’re the Love and Capes guy!” There were a few people, too, that I wanted to see the book who said they wanted to see the book.

And I met Johnny Johnny from Tiki Bar. No Lala, unfortunately, but still a win.

I met up with some friends who I only see at Comic-Con and related events, and that’s always a treat. I had dinner with Chris Golden, and our friend Wendy, and some new friends, too. I met up with the diabolically talented Eugene, who seriously just got off the plane from Dublin to come here. And, like I said, that aforementioned screenwriter and a few other people whose names I won’t drop just to be proper.

So, that’s my day, and a much better one it was. Tomorrow is the big day, the one that’s been sold out forever. I suspect that everyone on the planet will be inside the convention center, probably using Time Lord technology to fit them into such a small area. So, I’ll probably see you at the show.

Maybe I Can Cast a Patronus

Ah, Day Two. Or, actually, day one.

Comic-Con is starting to remind me of Azkaban Prison in the Harry Potter novels. A place patroled by the ghostly Dementors who seem to drain the life out of people, making them feel “as if they’d never know happiness or joy again.”

Now, the obvious question is “Why do I subject myself to this if it’s so bad?” Because it’s the place to be if you want to be in comics. It’s a work thing.

Up until about eight o’clock tonight, that’s how I felt. Then I did the second phase of any good Comic-Con. I hit the bars.

Now, it’s not as relaxing as you might think. Basically, you’re going to see who you can see, and make contacts. It’s mercenary as much as anything else. Not that I don’t like a good Long Island Iced Tea after a show, believe me I do. But you also want to make sure that you continue to make contacts out of the confines of of Comic-Con.

So I made some good contacts tonight. Who I can’t say. It’s way to early for that. But good things may come from my Thursday night.

On top of that, I met Colin Ferguson from the Sci-Fi Channel show “Eureka.” He’s not a business contact per se, but he’s a hell of a nice guy. He and I spoke for quite a while, and he’s just a good guy. I also met some other people, writers and producers, of the show. It’s nice to meet someone like that and have him be so easy to talk to and fun. And, he and I agreed on a Eureka plot point, so it’s always good to have that in common.

I didn’t want to overstay my welcome, so I headed out and checked the other bars. I ran into a couple people I knew, but mostly everyone said how tiring the show was and how they intended to go to bed early. I figured that many people couldn’t be wrong, so I decided to head back to the hotel and write the blog.

I don’t want to leave you with the impression the show is horrible. It’s not. It’s just... well, it’s The Show. And I did meet some great contacts at the show, too. Plus a bunch of Love and Capes fans. It’s great to hear such response of a project. And, I’m finding that my participation in Free Comic Book Day did get some new readers.

It’s just that the show makes it feel like an imposition for me to leave the booth. I should want to go over to Booth X to see Editor Y, not feel like Eeyore. “Oh, bother. I have to go talk to an editior now.”

Don’t worry, things will work out, They always do. But for now, I’m off to sack out.

Now It's Just The Pre-Show

I don’t want to overstate this, but this con may be the death of me. I mean it may actually be listed as Cause of Death on my death certificate. “Death by Comic-Con.”

And tonight was just the preview night.

Things started off decently enough. Out booth looked to be double-sized yesterday, which was what I alluded to before, but that was just a mistake that was rectified today. So I’ve got the 10x10 table space I’d paid for. I can’t complain about getting what I signed up for, but it was a little disappointing.

Preview Night was supposed to begin at 5:30, so it started promptly at 6:00. Our friend the Annoying Lady is back as the voice of the show, too. I suppose it helps clear people out when the show ends. Her insipid not-even-remotely-funny-as-she-thinks-she-is comments over the loudspeaker probably do more to drive lagging spectators out of the show than anything security itself could do.

The rumored attendance for the preview night, and let me stress again PREVIEW night, was 50,000. That was a Saturday attendance number not long ago. The three hour preview night was 50,000 people. I do not, in any way, want to think about the crowds of people on Saturday. Fortunately, I’ve stocked up on food and water at my booth.

It’s just exhausting. I’m Friday Tired already and, well, it’s Wednesday.

Now, it’s not all bad. I’ve sold more books in those three hours today than I have at some other shows in total, including San Diego. If I keep going at the rate I’m going, well, it’s going to be a darn good weekend.

Assuming I survive it, of course.

San Diego Pre-Pre Show

I’m off on my annual California pilgrimage. I’ve bored you in past posts about how much I hate flying out of the Cleveland Municipal Bus Station, and this time was no exception. The San Diego trip is such a pain, too, because I have to bring so much stuff for my booth. And I always overpack to boot.

The flight itself was pretty painless, though. I talked to the girl sitting next to me, Nora. She was from Albania, and going to LA to meet some friends. English was clearly her second language, but we chatted a little bit regardless. She told me that in Russia, when a plane lands, everyone on board applauds. I wanted to tell her that in America, we just expect the plane to land without incident, but I’m afraid the joke would have been halted at the language barrier.

Plus, she thought I was only 25, which was nice. People in Europe age hard, I guess.
Bob and Roger picked me up at the airport and then drove to San Diego. Set-up at the show was blissfully painless, which considering how many problems I’ve had with the SDCC show is a great surprise. It took about an hour to move everything to the booth.

Paul Merolle of Toon Tumblers is sharing booth space with me. Our location is primo, to quote those irritating Tonya Roberts commercials. We’re right next to the Hall C entrance, which is the main entrance to the con. There’s even some coolness I can’t get into until after the show.

Not for nothing, but have you ever gone to a restaurant and had them forget to charge you for part of the order? I don’t know what made me think of that, but maybe I’ll remember why after the show is over.

All my product has shown up, too, so stop by Booth 2000 and see not only the first four issues of Love and Capes, as well as the brand-spanking-new Love and Capes #5, in stores this very Wednesday. There will be Love and Capes t-shirts, glasses, and free bookmarks and buttons.

Come on by and live the fun!
Okay, it’s getting late. It’s time for me to get to bed before the craziness starts tomorrow. I’ll write more tomorrow.

How Big a Geek Have I Become?

A couple of years back, I was introduced to the Harry Potter series. The series has been really solid, with the exception of the speed bump that was Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, but got back on track with the sixth book. Of course, that's just my opinion, and I'm still looking forward to the movie of it this summer regardless.

Anyway, I thought I'd share how much of a Potter geek I've become. I was actually at one of the midnight releases, ironically before I was a fan of the series, just because I was hanging out with some Borders employees. I'd love to go to one for real, and in fact have been invited to do caricatures at a couple… but the book comes out the same week as Comic-Con in San Diego. That night I'm sure I'll be at the Hyatt bar doing the schmoozing thing.

But, I really want to get it. Heck, a couple days after San Diego, I'll be up in Los Angeles, with some pool time and a cross-country flight back to the Buckeye State ahead of me. I needs me the book. I'd just buy one on Monday, but there's all these cool pre-orders on Amazon, so…

Well, I've ordered the book via Amazon and it will be shipped to me at my Los Angeles hotel. It'll be waiting for me when I check in, and it'll be part of my post-Con recovery.

See, I'm not just a geek about comics and Star Trek.